Captain of Zero
by Dreg003
Summary: At end of an important assignment a Starfleet captain is sent beyond the stars to a place that defies the science he know. Join Captain Thornis as he along with a Federation teen citizen named Saito become familiars of Louise the Zero. Rated M for some fight scenes, and to be just sure.
1. Chapter 1

Hi guys, I have an avid reader in FFN but have never written a story on the site. The following is a crossover of my favorite game Star Trek Online and the lovable Familiar of Zero. Both are properties of their respective owners, this story is nonprofit and for the love of imagination. Enjoy your reading and I appreciate constructive comments.

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Tristian Academy of Magic

It was the time of the year in which the second year students summoned their familiars that would serve and protect them as their masters deemed fit. Already the majority of the students had done so with the exception as one Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Valliere or known by her peers Louise the Zero.

Professor Colbert looks around, trying figure out who is to continue. Another student named Kirche, attractive young woman, notices this and blurts out, "Professor, Louise the Zero is the only one who has not performed ritual yet".

Louise had dreaded this moment but could no longer avoid it. Colbert turns and beckons Louise to step forward so that they can all be done for the day.

She takes her place in front of the summoning area, hoping that her pass mistakes can be resolved and finally show everyone that she in more than a failure, more than Louise the Zero.

She takes a breath and begins chanting, "My servant in this vast universe; my divine, beautiful, wise, and powerful servant heed my call. I wish from the bottom of my heart answer my call and appear." After finishing, she points her wand forward, resulting in a typical but powerful explosion.

As the smoke clears, the results surprises Louise at what lies in front of her.

USS Void Herald (Odyssey Tactical Cruiser NX-99473)

Captain's log: Starfleet has recently dispatched orders to elements of the Special Reconnaissance Squadron (SRS) led by Admiral Matt Johnson to investigate a possible location of an Iconian gateway in an unexplored part of the Solanae Dyson Sphere. Previously recovered information from other missions also indicates possible data in the current strategies of the suspected returned Iconians.

The Void Herald joined the taskforce after just returning from supporting the assigned pickets' ships guarding allied border territory in the Dyson Sphere. The Voth decided during that time to push for more territory by utilizing sabotage methods on the border minefield and advance cloaking technology for sudden attacks on unsuspecting ships. My ship coordinated effectively in resupply and combat support in the units involved.

After completion of our assigned duties I was hoping the Void Herald's crew would get some shore leave at the SRS's Control Spire, but joined Admiral's Johnson group led by his ship the USS Sir Lancelot, a heavily modified Galaxy Dreadnought.

That man has good sense of humor despite being a human liberated Borg just like me. He still has good deal of his implants and even his skin color is still that pasty white. I have the majority of my implants removed except for some metal pieces and a cable that covers the lower right of my head around the ear, but got my original brown colored skin reminiscent of my Hispanic heritage. In addition I grew my hair out and keep it in a not too short crew cut, so I could look like a normal person.

Whatever that awaits at our destination we can deal, for I fear that the Voth may also be privy to our information also. Any advantage that we can get in this mission is the upmost importance in the various fronts Starfleet is currently involved, I hope.

End Log

Captain Thornis returns his attention to the forward viewing screen while preparing for any unforeseen situations that may arise when they get to their intended destination. Lt Lorentz my comms officer suddenly speaks up, "Captain, there is a communiqué from the admiral, putting it on the main screen". He looks up and says, "Admiral Johnson it's a pleasure to speak to as always".

"Captain Thornis I just need to finish some final details with you. When are approaching our intended spire, long-range sensors detected a large of ships up ahead. I seems that the Voth have beaten us to the punch."

Rising up Thornis asks, "So what is the plan".

"I intend to have taskforce make an opening in their lines and start beaming personnel to take the facility by any force necessary. Whatever ship is capable will do so while also dealing with the Voth. We cannot allow them to repulse us and take control. We expect heavy resistance both in space and inside the facility".

"Well admiral I will do my best to coordinate with rest of our people and take care of these dinosaurs".

"Then captain I wish you luck along with the others, Johnson out."

A few seconds later the squadron drops from warp to combat speed to face a larger force of Voth ships in front of them. "Well this is going to fun, they did not spare any expense on the occasion", thought Thornis as he watched the dangerous ships ahead.

Federation Space Earth Tokyo Japan

Saito was walking along the busy streets of his home city of Tokyo after getting repair work done on his personal PADD. Sure he could have gotten probably a newer one but he is satisfied with his current one and sees no reason to bother with such thing.

Besides being able with what you have would go long way in Starfleet Academy, if he is able to get accepted when he applies in a couple of years. His grades are good but still believes personal traits would help a lot in the long run. He knows that although Starfleet is the peaceful exploratory arm the Federation, various ongoing conflicts all over, within and beyond its borders.

After breaking from his stupor his realizes there is an odd object ahead of him in the middle of the walkway. It turns out to be a bright green circle hovering just above the ground. He sees that nobody else notices the strange thing and curiosity takes overs and reaches towards it.

Solanae Dyson Sphere SRS Taskforce USS Void Herald

It has been about five minute since the Federation ship engaged the Voth for the prize on possible yet to be discovered technology, information and/or weapons.

"Target the leading ship on our portside trying to separate us from the rest of our forces", commanded Thornis. He watched as the antiproton beams shredded the Voth's shields and then tore into its hull. After dealing with it the conn officer receives updated tactical data and informs, "Captain, the Sir Lancelot is charging its Spinal Phaser Lance, Admiral Johnson is ordering all ships that are able to move thru the opening once it fires".

"Take us into position and full combat speed when the opening appears". The Void Herald moved towards the projected blast, just as it got close the Sir Lancelot fired. Unfortunately the attack did not take out as many enemies as hoped for but it was enough for the Void Herald.

Thornis noticed that his ship would be the only to break through since the remaining Voth were recovering faster than expecting and pressed on their attack.

Gliding through the blockading ships Thornis and his crew hurriedly headed to the facility. Just as they were getting close, sensors detected a couple of enemies rushing to catch up them. At their velocity they catch quickly and would only leave enough time beam a limited amount of ground forces, maybe just one team.

Making a quick decision he called his best ground combat team: Anton (a Jem'Hadar elite warrior), Temerix (a Reman), Than (a Breen), and Lorentz (a Human for immediate beam down.

Thornis looked at his first officer Commander Mirra, "I need to take over once we are able to beam down. We will clear as many that we can while the rest of the fleet makes its way here. In the meantime support the fleet to the best of your abilities.

Mirra nodded as the captain and his team went to the transporter room.

He gave a quick look into his subspace storage device to see what he had, in the suddenness of being reassigned missions, had not made changes to the clutter he had. "Well there is no time to do a thorough check and changes, what excessive baggage I have will do", telling himself. Since all those things were stored in a subspace pocket it didn't weight his mind.

The transporter chief informed the team that they were in the transport window, and sent them on their way. Once done the Void Herald engaged its pursuers and fired with all of its might.

The team came on fire moments into their transport, fortunately they were mostly cannon fodder and easily dealt with. Temerix looked into his tricoder and detected signs of an Iconian gateway but it included a large number of adversaries. A quick plan was made and put into effect, running into a barrage enemy fire.

The group rushed in wedge formation with Thornis in the lead firing his trusty antiproton assault rifle and throwing smoke and photon grenades like no tomorrow. Due to violence of action and fast pace of the attackers, they were able to reach very close to now noticeable Iconian gate and various operating consoles.

After taking cover to take breather and continue on, the captains' combage chirped, "Captain, this is Mirra, the fleet is about chase out the remaining Voth and it is heading to send reinforcements, ETA 5 minutes". "Acknowledge Mirra, we will try to hold out as much as we can, but these guys are not making it easy. I am afraid there will be no fun for the rest of troops when they get here since the Voth charging us like crazy. Thornis out".

With the fighting renewed he assessed the situation, his men were dispatching most of the opposing ground forces, when he saw the last important barrier. In front of the gate, stood an enormous Voth exosuit getting reading to get a bead on him.

Making his decision Thornis stood up and charged at the suit while the operator of the suit was partially stunned at the brazen attack. Thornis could see in his HUD that the suit's shields were laughing off his blasts and doing little damage to it. Just as he got close to it, he swapped his rifle for his Tsunkatse Falchion from storage.

It swiped at the behemoth, bypassing most of its shields and causing terrible damage. The exosuit responded trying to backhand Thornis but rolled to the side and pressed on with quick precise slashes accompanied with powerful thrusts. Finally with what looked like an eternity, then monster fell with a loud thud. With a tired breath he placed the sword on his back while checking the surroundings.

Fortunately the rest were still alive with few injuries here and there. Standing still in place, he instructed everyone to start checking the equipment for anything useful.

At that moment, maybe due to battle damage and/or mysterious cause, the Iconian gate activated. It had its usual purple vortex color, but it seemed to show barely noticeable green color to it. Startled to the strange happening Thornis ordered an emergency shutdown to prevent any dire consequences.

Unknown to the group, the exosuit pilot in his last action, threw a powerful to the captain. There was no time to react, it connected in his midsection like a runaway train into the awaiting maw of the malfunctioning gateway. The only thought that Thornis could get out was, "Ah crap!"


	2. Chapter 2

Hi guys this is the next chapter in the Captain of Zero, enjoy. As always I don't own Star Trek Online and Familiar of Zero, they belong to their respective owners and this story is for the imagination.

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Last time on Captain of Zero,

Louise is called out in front of her classmates during the familiar summoning ritual to see whether she is worthy of being called a noble. A teenager in Tokyo, Japan is surprised to find a glowing green circle hovering in front of him. Captain Thornis and his away team have just finish the last of the Voth in disputed Iconian facility. An exosuit thought to have been defeated stirs momentarily and suddenly punches the captain into the nearby Iconian gateway.

And now the continuation.

Solanae Dyson Sphere SRS Fleet USS Sir Lancelot

The battle had been drawn out with various degrees of damage to the Federation ships and loss of several Voth ships. Due to heavy casualties and detected SRS reinforcements minutes away, the Voth decided to cut and run back to their territory.

"Bring us about, set course to the facility and prepare to start beaming security and science teams down. Once that is done I want all ships to form a perimeter and lookout for further contact. When the rest of the ships arrive relay them the same instructions", ordered Admiral Johnson. The fleet moved around the spire carrying out the orders issued. "Admiral, message from Captain Thornis away team, it seem that he has been forcefully thrown into an active Iconian gateway", informed the communications officer.

The admiral quickly gave command of the fleet the next ranking officer, Commodore Irwin, and headed with his team down to the facility.

At the site there were already various science and engineering teams trying to figure out what happened with the accidently activated gate and to find the fate of the missing captain. He approaches the most senior engineer and barks, "Report on what has occurred here".

The engineer quickly gives the details of how there was some damage done to gate equipment and how Thornis was forced into it as described by the away team. The admiral acknowledges the report and sends the engineer back to work. Johnson then stares at the presently inactive gate questioning himself if they find the location Thornis was dumped to and even if they could him back.

Tristian Academy of Magic

The previous explosion clears, revealing two obviously but strange looking male humans lying unconscious on the ground. This immediately confuses Louise because she cannot believe she not only summoned two males but two probable commoners as her familiars.

A student suddenly shouts, "Look, the Zero summoned two commoners". That is when the rest of the students recover and start to laugh out hard at the embarrassed and angry Louise. She turns around and looks directly at Colbert, "Professor, may I redo my summoning, this has to be a mistake". "Sorry Miss Valliere but the summoning ceremony is sacred and cannot be done over again. Complete the ritual or I will be forced to expel you", answered the teacher.

She quickly goes back looking at her familiars now giving them the detailed look over that she skipped due to her complaining. The closest to her was boy, most probably her own aged dressed in some blue clothing giving him an ordinary appearance. His facial features told her that he was not Halkeginian or any other type people she has read about.

The figure further from her in change was an older man (about late 20's or early 30's) dressed in predominately red shirt with black trim in various places with yellow shoulder pads and black trousers along with boots. On his left side chest was an arrow shaped object and four small squared collar pins. He also wore black gloves on both hands, but those were the least interesting. He carried an oddly looking sword on his back along with what looks like an odd pistol on his right waist. Looking at his face, his skin is brown with neatly kempt hair and goatee but with different facial features that Germanians have. The last detail confused Louise the most, on the right side of his head was a metal contraption attached and seemed to actually belong there.

Louise had a momentary fear that she may have summoned a noble by seeing the quality clothing he was wearing. This was bad, if this was true she would be in trouble for kidnapping a noble against his will and it would also fall on her family. The least of all it's been unheard of summoning people as familiars, there was no way to determine her affinity with this result making Louise feeling frustrated.

She noticed that the youngest of them woke up and began speaking in language that she did not understand. "Why don't speak our language you ignorant commoner", shouted Louise at the teen. Having resigned herself, Louise moves to the boy, "You should consider yourself lucky commoner for the privilege of what I am about to do". She took hold of the surprised boy and gave him a kiss, sealing the contract.

Saito was a little fuzzy when he got up and took a look around at what happened after touching the weird green circle. He remembered a tugging force that pulled on him with such a force that he lost grip on his PADD. The effort and time he put on his repair was now for nothing if he not able to get back anytime soon. His confusion gradually clears and sees that he is surrounded by teenagers dressed in odd uniforms and cloaks. He loudly asks, "Where am I, who are you people. This does not look like Tokyo so somebody please tell me what is going on here". Then a pink haired girl came up to him and began saying something in a strange language that he could not understand. This reminded him that he needed to continue to learn more foreign languages if he were to apply to Star Fleet. Even if universal translators are standard, it also gives an insight in the culture of those he will meet.

At the end of this inside talking, he caught the girl grabbing his face in the effort to kiss him. Being caught off guard, the girl and boy had their first kisses in their life. Saito felt a little embarrassed while Louise was a little angry at the situation. A searing pain was suddenly felt on his left hand so overwhelming it caused Saito to pass out.

The opposite action happened with Thornis who was still out due the powerful hit he took and effect of going through the gate. He got up with quickness that surprised those around him while at the same time drawing out the sword on his back. Still a little leery from the fight he held the weapon in diagonal defensive posture for the next attack. Upon a little more recovery of his senses he saw the same that Saito saw when he woke up. He then slightly lifted his left glove to see the cause of his abrupt awaking, there on the back of his hand is a seared brand of unknown symbols. The brand seems be affecting him in strange way but puts it aside to deal with the situation at hand. Finally deciding to first to get information on the current whereabouts.

Spying the older looking person he asks, "Mister would you mind telling me where I am, it seems that this not the place I remembered being last". "Of course my good sir, this is the Tristian Academy of Magic in the country of Tristian located in the continent of Halkeginian", informed Colbert. (Note: Thornis combage doubles as universal translator if you did not pickup earlier)

The captain immediately figures that these people spoke a language similar to French on Earth, but the name of this location is unknown to him. He returns his sword onto his back that results in a visible relief from Colbert also relaxing his unnoticed defensive posture. In order to ease tensions further he begins with introductions, "Hello, I am Captain Thornis of the Federation starship USS Void Herald. Who do I have the pleasure speaking with?" "Greetings, I am Professor Colbert and this is Miss Louise Valliere, who happens to be the person who summoned the both of you".

Thornis looks down and sees an unconscious boy who by the looks of it seems to be an ordinary Federation citizen. Then he is asks, "By captain of a ship, is it a sea ship or air ship? Also are you a noble?" The captain realizes these people are primitive although they look human. This means that he has to maintain the Prime Directive on noninterference as best as possible but foresees trouble keeping it. "Well it is a type of ship that I may explain later on and no I am not a noble. As you can see I belong to an organization that I believe you do not know of."

Feeling satisfied, Colbert informs the captain that Louise will give him all the rest of the information that he needs and that any further questions will be happily answered by him or if need be by the school headmaster. With this being done he dismisses the rest of the class and depart to their own devices. This leaves Thornis with the conclusion that he will have to find a way back since he is pretty sure his trip was one way only. Taking his tricoder, he kneels on the fallen boy to check on his vitals.

The boy seems to be okay and seems only to be resting for the moment, so he decides carry him inside and wake him up there. At the same time Louise watches with curiosity at what the man is doing with the strange looking device. He then picks up the boy and faces her, "Miss Louise so where is the most appropriate place to start our talk?" "Follow me back to my room, it is the best place for it", answers Louise.

At Louise's room, Saito is awoken with the tricoder and gets up with him still being confused. Saito picks up where he left off in his line of questions. Thornis tries to think of a way to calm the teen down and to configure his combage to translate this place's language. The irritation returns to Louise and decides to perform a silencing spell to quite the shrieking boy. This causes an explosion right of the boy's face knocking him to the floor. With anger he gets back up shouting, "What the heck did you do me you stupid girl, are you trying to kill me or something!?" "Hey you, I can understand now, you are not talking gibberish anymore", Louise answers back.

After a little more arguing between Louise and Saito, Thornis gives a small cough to remind the two that he is also there with them. Saito is the first to break off, he quickly recognizes the metal apparatus on the side of the man's head. Before he gets to freak out, "Hello, my name is Captain Thornis of the USS Void Herald, a human liberated Borg formally known as 13 of 15. It is also okay if you refer to me as just Thornis". This visibly calmed the boy giving him the few seconds to catch his breath. Saito was internally glad that the man turns out to be a Starfleet officer and not a dangerous Borg. Stories have been told of what is like to be assimilated by them, which is something he would like to never find out first hand.

Saito now calmed down introduces himself, "My name Hiraga Saito from Tokyo Japan, but you may call me Saito". After this, Louise finally informs them that she had summoned them as her familiars who are to perform any tasks she seems fit. Saito was about to argue but the captain stopped him before another argument could take off. Instead he informed the two that they will have to accept since they are possibly far away from Federation space with no way back at the moment. There would be certain condition though, she will have to provide proper feeding, clothing, bedding and other basic necessities. They will in turn serve her to their best abilities.

Louise feeling tired and sleepy, agrees to the terms but says that proper bedding would have to be ordered. She expected an animal or something, which is why there is a pile of hay laying in the corner of the room. So finally Louise decides to undress to change into her night clothes, resulting Thornis performing his quickest about face and Saito with a bleeding nose failing to cover his eyes on time. Saito and Louise argue about it but the pink haired girl justifies it with them being lowly familiars. "I guess that would have been find if you would of summoned a pervert instead, he would take your actions differently", the captain says in between the argument.

This causes Louise to have a double take and visibly gets a little shaky and pale. He then assures her that she does not have to worry about it but must be considerate of her actions. Louise gets over it and decides to go to be and rest for tomorrow. Before she is to go to sleep, Thornis asks her for permission to look around the academy along with Saito for a while. Wanting to doze off, she says yes and passes out. The summoning of two human beings had taken a lot of her will power resulting in her present state.

In the hallway Thornis informs, "Now to find out how far we are from the Federation or allied space". Saito gives a confused look to the older man, not knowing any clue on how to do such a thing. The captain smiles and says, "Well this will brush up my astrometrics training in three dimensional location positioning. Don't worry I have a tricoder that can do the task, maybe that will be the first step in getting back." This reassures Saito and they keep on walking.

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Here is the second chapter of The Captain of Zero, I hope you enjoy and please review. I will try to have more action and make it entertaining. Thank you.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry guys for not updating, had to do some research for this next part of the story. I wanted to make some convincing techno babble a la Star Trek, and also got caught up in the most recent Crystalline Catastrophe event on Star Trek Online. I also admit to be into my Mexican soap operas, so don't judge me even though I am a dude. Here is the next chapter, I do not own STO/FOZ, they belong to their respective owners and this is not for personal profit.

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Last time on Captain of Zero,

Wrecks of Voth ships are visible as the victorious Federation fleet heads to claim its prize. A confused Saito is kissed by Louise to seal the familiar pact, causing him to pass out from the pain of the etching familiar runes. Captain Thornis works out deal with Louise for their familiar duties. Determined to find out how far they are away from Federation space, Thornis and Saito head outside.

And now the continuation.

Tristian Academy of Magic

The two displaced males head outside to figure out if there is a possibility of making any headway to return back to Federation or allied space. On the way out they encounter a few students out late, doing what kids at their age do. One of the kids, a ridiculous looking Don Juan wannabe blonde, is chatting up a pretty younger brunette. Another a red headed girl with a very attractive features, was flirting with boy on the side of a water fountain. They initially ignored the first boy since it seemed that he just wanted to show an air of superiority in front of his ongoing conquest, they finally gave him a passing greeting and went on their way. It did not really satisfy the foppish boy but he played it off as if they were ignorant commoners.

Additionally they surprised one of the academy's maids whose one track mind of dusting a bust of some professor from long ago did not see them coming, pleasantries were exchanged between them. To Thornis it seemed that the busty maid named Siesta showed a little interest in Saito since they were of same age and the fact of being an unheard of human familiar. As they continued on, the captain thought that the maid did not looked like the rest of the people in the academy, her features were Asian similar to Saito while everyone else was European. Well he would look into it once the current task is completed and time allowed it.

Thornis and Saito finally arrive at the courtyard where the summoning took place to do their work. "This seems a good place to begin our observation of the stars to figure out where we are", said the captain. At the same another person was doing some observation of her own, a petite bluenette named Tabitha had caught sight of the two human familiars at the summoning courtyard. She was out with her dragon Sylphid late at night doing some flying around getting to know her familiar. She perched herself on top a tower far away enough from them but close enough to spy them with a wind spell.

In addition a very curious Siesta hid behind a column to also see and listen the two strangers at what they were doing. She got an immediate attraction to the younger man named Saito who had nice and endearing personality. But also the older man named Thornis gave her some familiarity in the way he acted. Although she was very young when her grandfather passed away, she sees some of him in this man. This gives her the chance to observe the two and get any juicy info to gossip about with the rest of the staff later on.

The captain explains that ideally to figure out their location they would have to have access to the subspace beacon network of the Federation. Unfortunately they are nowhere near enough to Federation space and also the tricoder is not set to receive signals to the network. The next best thing is thing to do is to search for the next best thing, triangulate their position with pulsars. These stars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation. It is similar to lighthouses located in space that can be used to determine spatial locations. Ever since most known civilizations advance enough to detect these sign posts in the sky, mapped them to best of their abilities in the sky. This is more evident in the Federation in which the use of deep subspace observational arrays for astronomical use. Also these maps have been compared to each other making corrections where needed to increase accuracy of such.

He took out his tricoder and set it at the appropriate program to begin searching for the distinct signatures of all the recorded pulsars and addition the center of the galaxy center as indicated the energy source Sagittarius A*(**Note 1**). He also explains that the composition of the atmosphere has to determine and the interstellar energy scattering per set interstellar distance to adjust for any discrepancies that result in errors of data recording.

Once done, an enlarged holographic map of the sky is projected in front of them both recording and calculating all the necessary data points in their task. In the past, hours were required in the use of more primitive instruments to accomplish the same project. Fortunately the tricoder is advance enough to perform the same job in as little as half an hour due to sensitivity and advance processing power. "Alright all we have to do is to let the tricoder process all the information it gets and see the results of its calculations", informs Thornis.

While both of the displaced men are occupied with their distraction, the two observing females are astonished at the display these mysterious men are doing in the summoning courtyard. The object held by the captain is projecting an image as it was a magical object being wielded by a mage of high caliber. Tabitha being a more learned person figures that the objects on the images reflect the stars as they appear at the present.

She figures that they are doing some form of astronavigation but does not understand why they are doing it if they were told Halkeginia is where they are. Her suspicions that these people are more than they appear is more evident as she sees their actions as they progress.

Siesta point of view astonishes her making her believe for a moment that the people in front of her are mages with the display in front her. But due to her experience of being around a school of students and professors with magical abilities, it seems that it is not the case. They are definitely commoners but not in the normal sense, maybe her grandfather's stories of different and varied worlds are actually real.

After a while, the first results were presented on the projected screen, the calculations brought a surprised look on the captain. It shows that they are located in the Delta Quadrant, it was both good and bad news. The bad news was that it's an area that was determined by the USS Voyager's journey to be devoid of any spacefaring civilizations, so any contact of advance civilizations was out of the question. The good news is that the Solanae Dyson Sphere is just under 2000 light years away, meaning that travel at high warp including quantum slipstream is anywhere from a year to two years, depending on travel conditions and any other problems that may happen.. At the present situation he did not know if it was possible to get a message out for a rescue. Captain Thornis knew that the allied powers were planning to do exploration in the space surrounding the Solanae Dyson Sphere, but not that far away at their present location.

Unknowingly to him actions are in progress from his point of origin to find out what happened to him in the aftermath of the vicious battle for the sought after Iconian facility.

Delta Quadrant Solanae Dyson Sphere

Admiral Johnson impatience grew as time passed with no indication of what happened to Captain Thornis after the Iconian gateway mysteriously activated and sent him who knows where. For all that he knew is that Thornis ended up in the most inhospitable place imaginable, where even his remaining Borg enhancements would not be enough for survival.

The head engineer approached the admiral with not so good news finally, "Admiral, we have finally have brought the equipment to working condition but there is problem that can't be avoided". He explained that the damage to the gates systems were up to a point that an activation could be done to the last destination of the gate but with a microscopic opening that allowed only verbal communication at the other end. This is also complicated with state of the equipment and with no know how of fixing it, the connection time is unknown

Resigning himself for the long shot, Johnson gave the order to activate the gate and hope for the best. A hum got louder as the gate activated, the purple vortex formed in front of the gathered people. Once done, the admiral spoke through his combage, hoping for any contact from his missing starship captain.

Tristian Academy of Magic

Suddenly Captain Thornis' combage chirped with a garbled but still understandable communications with a voice he is all too familiar with. "Thornis, can you hear me, I do not know how long this can go on but respond if you are able", Johnson's voice spoke out. Not wanting to waste the precious moments of contact, the captain did a quick rundown of the current situation including the fact in addition of the Federation civilian Saito and their force contract to the noble named Louise. The most important information to be sent to the other end is the location of the planet in which Halkeginia is relative to the Solanae Dyson Sphere.

It is a good distance from them even at high warp. Fortunately the upcoming allied plans are in favor of the present situation. "The following information has just been briefed on all fleet heads. Plans are in motion to expand our influence in the area surrounding the Solanae Dyson Sphere, the aim is to look for new allies and follow up on friendly powers met by Voyager", informed Johnson. The downside is that the first expansion will not reach Thornis location, the initial strategy is to secure a viable beachhead in the Delta Quadrant that can further be increased at a later date.

This left only one option, to send a ship with its only purpose to reach Thornis. It would also need carry equipment to build a trans warp gate so that the return trip will be faster than getting there. The captain sent an additional report on the observed abilities of the natives that warrants further investigation, having easy access to their home system will smooth the process more so. In addition the possibility of using if for staging point for future deeper explorations is a boon once relations have been established with a recognizable local government.

The main concern is to observe the Prime Directive, these people are more than prewarp, they far too preindustrial of all things. Unfortunately contact has already been made and it can not be taken back. With careful consideration, the next statements are finally given out, "Captain Thornis, your following instruction are as follows: 1. Minimize your impact of the civilization of the planet, uphold the Prime Directive, but if need be use your discretion. Just don't pull a Kirk by breaking every rule in the book, seriously. 2. Continue your association with the person named Louise and any others note. If it comes to it, friendly contacts will be a plus for future dealings. 3. Ensure the safety of Federation citizen Saito Hiraga. 4. Finally await the arrival of a single Federation ship due to arrive anywhere from a year and half to just over two years dependent on unforeseen events they may come across".

To Thornis relief, his ship the USS Void Herald is assigned, its large size will allow to carry all the necessary supplies. Admiral Johnson then issues orders to field promote Commander Mirra as acting captain of the Void Herald for the duration to the journey. Just as the last part of the exchange finished, the head engineer informs that permanent equipment failure is about to occur.

The admiral and captain give their final farewells as the signal is cutoff. Both Thornis and Saito stood in their places feeling relief that help is on the way and it is now just a matter of waiting it out. Having done more than they had hoped for, both men decide to rest for the night. Once gone, the two observers finish processing what amazing event occurred in front of them. They still doubted their eyes, but unknown to them, there was an additional person saw at least the exchange: Louise.

Wondering why her familiars going out late got the better of her and ended up listening on their conversation. She is sure they believe of being seen and heard, so she will remain quite until the best time to ask them comes by. Louise then goes on back to her room, taking a shortcut to arrive before her charges so no to arouse suspicion. This also means that she has to treat them the way she had planned on though she may get away with it Saito but at a very lesser degree with the captain.

The next morning Louise was awaken by Thornis so that she could get dressed and go down to eat breakfast. Before she did the repeat of last night of undressing in front of them, both males told her they would wait outside. She begun to order them to fetch her clothes and help her get dressed as they were moving, prompting Thornis to pause. He told that she is old enough to do that simple task by herself, their familiar duties he believed should mostly involve advice, guidance, companionship and physical protection. That left a confused but slightly ticked off Louise as the door was close shut.

At breakfast Thornis nudged Saito to be a gentleman and help seat Louise at an empty spot of the second year's section. Being a Starfleet officer instills certain etiquette that should be passed along and such details ensures that they are more than ignorant commoners. Even with this consideration she had ordered a piece of stale bread and some form of soup for their breakfast while the nobles got serve opulent food. Saito spotted the maid Siesta, quickly he motioned Thornis to follow him to the girl whom they asked to the kitchen. Louise almost let her sudden flash of jealousy/anger get the better of her for them leaving her, but had enough control so not to cause a scene. It also helped that the captain excuse themselves, so instead she ordered him to meet her out at the courtyard after they finished. Saito figured that they could get their food at the kitchen since the staff usually have their own eating area there, improving their breakfast several times over.

"So Saito, now that you are done eating breakfast, can you help serve some pastries to the second year students out the courtyard?" chirped Siesta with a barely visible blush on her cheeks. "Sure, why not, we are going to meet our master there so it is no problem. Besides it will be my thanks for helping us with our meal", responded a bashful Saito. Siesta explained that the second year students had that part of the day off to pass quality time with their familiars and get to know. Thornis agreed to keep Louise company and explain more about themselves while Saito served with Siesta.

At the courtyard Saito was delivering his last pastries when he heard a commotion a few tables away from him. When he got there he saw Siesta being verbally attacked by a blonde male noble that went by Guiche, the same one from last night. It happened that Siesta by mistake uncovered his two timing of his girlfriend Montmorency with the brunette named Katie from last night. This occurred by the way of a fallen perfume bottle given to him by Montmorency and Siesta's attempt to give it back. For his arrogance, he got slapped by both girls leaving him the laughing stock of the moment. To take attention of his embarrassment away, he quickly passed blame to Siesta and demanded an apology.

Saito quickly stood up for Siesta, "Hey pal, it's actually your fault for being a two timer. You should beg forgiveness to the two girls you played with and leave Siesta alone", he shouted. This caused the crowd to refocus but Guiche would not have it, "So one of the Louise the Zero commoners is showing disrespect, well then I challenge you to a duel. Meet me at Vestri courtyard if you feel like getting a lesson in manners". "Well I accept your challenge", replied Saito as he followed him to the duel area. Siesta tried to have him back out and apologize since commoners have no chance against nobles, despite the things she saw last night. Saito felt he is the right and needed to show that pompous kid a little piece of his mind.

After moments of mentally organizing his thoughts, Thornis started to tell Louise of his and Saito story when all of a sudden a student interrupted. He quickly told them that Saito was in a duel with noble student at the Vestri court. Both of them rushed to that area to see what they could do, the area ended to be crowded with students surrounding the two males in the middle. Thornis was able to physically push through the front due to his size and Borg enhancements, while Louise got stopped dead in her tracks.

According to custom, Guiche will use his magic against Saito, making it a lopsided fight in the captain's mind. Unfortunately, all the students with their superiority train of mind thought it was the way it should be and thirsted for a commoner bashing.

Thornis had to think quickly, he knew that trying to interfere in their custom is a violation of the Prime Directive. On the other hand, he could not let harm happed to his charge. So he stepped a couple steps forward, "Hey Guiche, are you going to fight an unarmed opponent, please as if such a petty win will do much for your reputation. Let's make it even at least this once". He unstrapped his Tsunkatse and handed to Saito to use. He would keep an eye on the duel and intervene if he needs to prevent harm on Saito. His phaser pistol and other advance weapons in storage were out the question for this tech inferior crowd, but he had his other trusty unseen close combat weapon ready: his Bat'leth.

Besides ever since becoming Louise's familiar, he noticed his physical abilities improve when touching a weapon. He figures the same effect on Saito.

He was so right, while gripping the sword on hand, Saito felt a sudden knowledge of how to move and handle the sword like he always had it. "Now for the duel, I Guiche the Bronze, present my Valkyrie golem as your opponent", stated Guiche. With a wave of his wand, the construct rushed toward Saito with tremendous speed while everyone expecting a quick finish and amusement. Saito never gave them the satisfaction, with even more lightning speed and matching speed, he avoided its attack and at the same time destroyed it with a powerful upper diagonal slash.

This left all the nobles with their mouths hanging at what just took place in front of them, even Tabitha who got dragged by Kirche to the match, visibly blinked in surprise. Guiche recovered and summoned ten Valkyries in desperation with some either having sword/spear shield combination. He kept four with him while the rest were sent to put down Saito. The first two tried a frontal attack while the other four split to the sides, Saito responded by flipping over them and turning them to dust with a swipe on their backs.

He then rushed to his two on the left, he deflected the spear of his next attacker into the golem next it and loped their heads while distracted. The other two took a second of sword play before they too ended up to dust. Now Guiche was visibly scared of his opponent, and ordered the last four golems forward hoping to end it. Having gotten the hang of how to defend himself, the last four Valkyries seemed like child's play. The first got its sword ripped from its grasp while being bisected, giving Saito two weapons which he blocked with one and attacked with the other. The rest simply got ripped to shreds with a flurry a precise slashes and thrusts, dropping them golem weapon, Saito walked towards Guiche.

The young noble shocked in disbelief, dropped to the floor trembling in fear once Saito got close enough to point the borrowed sword to his neck. "I yield, don't kill me please", pleaded Guiche. "I accept, but you must first apologize to the two you played with and especially Siesta for trying to put the blame of you blunder", Saito set as a conditions. Not having a choice, Guiche got on his knees and loudly begged forgiveness.

Once done, Saito approached Thornis and gave back the sword. "Thanks for the sword, I don't think I could have done it without it", stated the boy. Thornis just gave him a smile and gave him an approving nod, for displaying good judgment at the end. Siesta went up to thank Saito for her defense giving him the most adoring look she could muster in his face leaving him a little flustered. Before he could make an answer, she took off in the effort to keep herself from doing anything more embarrassing. All they caught as she ran away was fading squeal of delight from the young lady.

Louise who finally broke through the disappearing gathering, berated the kid for foolishly getting himself in trouble. For a split second the captain saw bit of genuine concern that quickly turned to more anger. Finally since it turned out in their favor, she calmed down cutting it shorter than it would have gone on. Having exerted more than his body should have, Saito felt a little tired causing him to loose balance but got caught by Thornis. "We should take him back to the room for him to recover, and if time allows we can do our conversation that is still pending. Also we have to plan on some training, since this is a sign of how Saito is not physically up to par", says the older man. Louise agrees and head to her place.

At the same time, Kirche and Tabitha stare at the trio as they make their way inside. Kirche states that she have a new burning attraction to the now desirable boy, even as a passing thought the older man a slight lesser degree of attractiveness. Tabitha interest on the other hand laid on the captain, it was purely from the way he carried himself and including of what she saw and heard last night. This enforced her beliefs that he is not someone to take lightly and to keep a closer eye on the familiars of Louise.

* * *

**Note 1:** Sagittarius A* is a bright and very compact astronomical radio source at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius. It is part of a larger astronomical feature known as Sagittarius A. Sagittarius A* is believed to be the location of a supermassive black hole, like those that are now generally accepted to be at the centers of most spiral and elliptical galaxies. Observations of the star S2 in orbit around Sagittarius A* have been used to show the presence of, and produce data about, the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole, and have led to the conclusion that Sagittarius A* is the site of that black hole. Please don't flame on this scientific detail, this is phenomenon is observed by scientists and the present is scientific fact. As a disclaimer, theories and scientific facts evolve over time. Finally I beg no mentions of religion, I seem to see heated discussions in the comment sections of scientific websites. This a fictional story with a degree of nonfiction.

I was able to get inspiration and finally post this chapter. Had to push it out before the STO Delta Rising expansion is released, I will try work on the story while playing the game. Also I am moving and doing job hunting very soon, so please be patient for now. I may not have internet access but I will store new chapters in my laptop and post them when able to. Since this is my first story, fixes and editing is expected and will do so when I reread the posted chapters. This may result in additional, reworked and/or deleted scenes to make the story flow more smoothly and will point out when those changes happen.

Also I forgot to mention, if you want to read up on the current and past storylines of Star Trek Online, go to the Star Trek Wiki page. It has the majority of the information to understand the pre STO/FOZ crossover. Captain Thornis is my main Federation character and I am working on his backstory to make him more in depth. I want to make him more of a supporting main character, as a mentor to Saito and guide to Louise. Also since he is older, any pairings with him will not include the younger characters, I already have strongly someone in mind and is the best choice so far. Guesses are welcomed but will only reveal when it comes to it.

Thank you for reading the story. Live long and prosper, unless you have pink haired girlfriend (which I think would not be bad) who would make it difficult on the living part due to explosive jealousy (that I do mind).


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